Vanilla Orange Spice Cake

We’ve made it to September y’all, and fall is on its way! Temps all over the country are starting to dip, leaves are falling, and people everywhere are getting their bake on. So in preparation of the coming season, I dedicate this recipe to all of you who dream of citrus and cinnamon, cozy blankets, hot tea, and tall leather boots to crunch through those orange and red painted leaves- with the crisp autumn breeze running through your hair. Oh, fall- you couldn’t come soon enough, and nothing says, ‘bring it’ like this Vanilla Orange Spice Cake. So turn on some music ( French Cafe on Pandora Radio preferably ^_^ ) , put on your apron, and make this.

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease a bundt pan with coconut oil or an all vegetable shortening, like Nutiva superfood shortening. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and chia seeds. In a separate mixing bowl mash a banana, then add eggs, vanilla, maple, orange juice and zest, palm oil and almond milk. Whisk well. Combine wet ingredients with dry and stir just until the two come together. Using a rubber spatula, scrape mixture into greased bundt pan and spread evenly on top. Place in oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until set. Let cool slightly and invert onto a plate.

We serve this with a sticky cinnamon and coconut sugar sauce. It was adapted and healthified from the Cooking for Isaiah cookbook, and it is…amazing.

For the sauce you need:

1 C filtered water

1 C coconut sugar

about 1/2 TB ground cinnamon

In a medium saucepan add coconut sugar, cinnamon and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Whisk constantly until it starts to thicken up. Turn off heat and let cool slightly. It will thicken more as it cools. Drizzle over cake and serve. Tip: You don’t want it too thick, but not too thin either. If it’s too thin it’ll be more like sugar water and too thick is like caramel candy that sticks to your teeth. You’ll just need to keep a good eye on the consistency and be patient. It seems like a lot of whisking and waiting, but it will thicken. When you start to see a line that stays for about a split second at the bottom on the sauce pan its about time to let it start cooling. It’ll be about the same consistency as maple syrup just slightly thicker so it holds that drizzle shape when it hits the cake. Have so much fun!

Vanilla Orange Spice Cake

2015-09-10 13:06:30

A great way to welcome the fall season! Gluten free, refined sugar free and everything. ;-) Here's to autumn sweetness. xo

Set oven to 350 F. Grease a bundt pan with coconut oil or all vegetable shortening. In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and chia seeds. In a separate mixing bowl mash banana. Then add eggs, vanilla, maple syrup, orange juice, zest, and red palm oil. Stir wet ingredients into the dry just until combined. Pour into bundt pan. spread around evenly with a spatula and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until set.

Notes

Serve with a sticky cinnamon sauce by combining 1 C water, 1 C coconut sugar and 1/2 TB cinnamon in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and whisk until thickened. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before drizzling over cake.